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“The woman behind the counter asked Ozzie if he would like his mum to be his next of kin, while looking at me.

“Ozzie was distraught, and told her that I was his partner, not mum.

“I felt upset but then I just decided not to care.”

They are taunted daily- but just shrug it off (Image: HotSpot Media)

Sharon and Mark met on Christmas Day in 2014 at Sharon's local pub through mutual friends.

However, Sharon admits at first the age gap was an issue for her.

She said: “It was the first Christmas I had ever had work off, and my friend dragged me down to the pub to celebrate.

“My daughter was at her dad's house so I thought why not?

“I'd been single for a year and wasn't looking to jump into a relationship.

“When I met Ozzie, I could tell straight away that he was too young for me, but throughout the day I discovered we were both huge boxing and cricket fans, and when a song came on the jukebox, we started singing.

“It was amazing how well we got on, but I knew nothing could ever happen. I was divorced with a teenage daughter at home and Ozzie was in his early 20s.”

Sharon Osbourne had her doubts at first (Image: HotSpot Media)

The pair became friends on Facebook but Sharon warned him that they could only be friends.

But Ozzie didn’t give up easily and chanced his luck by asking her out on a date – and to his surprise, Sharon said yes.

She said: “I told him that I was too old for him, and he replied saying age was just a number.

“So, I relented. We went out for dinner the next night, and we hit it off again.

“From that day, we became inseparable, but I still worried about our ages and what people would think.”

The couple on their wedding day (Image: HotSpot Media)

Fearing what others would say, the pair hid their relationship from family and friends.

And afraid of people judging their age gap, Sharon and Ozzie decided to keep their relationship a secret for three months.

The pair would eat out away from the city just to be sure that no one would notice them.

Sharon would even lie to her 16-year-old daughter Katy, telling her she was seeing a friend when really she was spending time with Ozzie.

She said: “Even though I was in my 40s, I felt like a young teenager sneaking around!

“It made everything seem so exciting.”

The couple with Sharon's daughter, Katy (Image: HotSpot Media)

Finally, after four months of dating in April 2015, the couple took the plunge and admitted to their family and friends they were in a relationship.

And to their surprise, it was well-received.

She said: “Our friends thought it was great. They could tell how happy we both were.

“I introduced Ozzie to Katy, and she really liked him.

“I then met Ozzie's parents, and they were surprisingly lovely to me. They were close to my age.

“We did receive some comments about how we’d never last and how I was old enough to be Ozzie’s mum - it hurt at first but we just laughed it off.

“Friends at work started calling me a cougar - it was annoying and ridiculous at first, but now I can appreciate the joke.”